4Narrated from Ibn `Umar by Ahmad
(2:85); Tabarani in the Kabir (12:361), Hatythami in Majma`
al-zawa'id (8:263), Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir 6:355,
and Suyuti in his Tafsir al-Durr al-manthur (5:169).
Haythami said: "The sub-narrators in Ahmad's chain are the
men of sound (sahih) narration."

5Narrated from Ibn Mas`ud by Ahmad and
Ibn `Adi. Haythami in Majma` al-zawa'id (8:263) says:
"The sub-narrators in both chains are the men of sound
(sahih) narration."

7Ahmad narrated it and Ibn Kathir
mentions it in his Tafsir for Surat Luqman. al-Haythami
said in Majma` al-zawa'id (#116): "Abu Dawud narrates
part of it, and all of the sub-narrators in Ahmad's chain are
trustworthy and they are Imams."

10al-Haythami said: "Ahmad (4:303
#18718) narrated it and its chain contain Maymun Abu `Abd Allah.
Ibn Hibban declared him trustworthy while a group of others
declared him weak. The remainder of its sub-narrators are
trustworthy."

11Ibn Hisham relates it in his Sira
(Beirut, dar al-wifaq ed. 3-4: 219) and also Ibn Kathir in al-Bidaya
(4:99).

13Haythami says in Majma` al-zawa'id
(9:24 #91): "al-Bazzar relates it and its sub-narrators are
all sound (rijaluhu rijal al-sahih)." Qadi `Iyad
cites it in al-Shifa (1:56 of the Amman edition). Suyuti
said in his Manahil al-safa fi takhrij ahadith al-shifa
(Beirut 1988/1408) p. 31 (#8): "Ibn Abi Usama cites it in
his Musnad from the hadith of Bakr ibn `Abd Allah al-Muzani, and
al-Bazzar from the hadith of Ibn Mas`ud with a sound (sahih)
chain." Ibn al-Jawzi mentions it through Bakr and then again
through Anas ibn Malik in the penultimate chapter of the
penultimate section of al-Wafa, and also mentions the
version through Aws ibn Aws with a sound chain: "The actions
of human beings are shown to me every Thursday on the night of
(i.e. preceding) Friday." See also Fath al-Bari
10:415, al-Mundhiri's al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib 3:343, and Musnad
Ahmad 4:484.

16Narrated in Tabarani and Ahmad with a
sound (sahih) chain according to Haythami in Majma` al-zawa'id.
Also narrated by Abu Ya`la and Ibn Mani`.

17Those who strictly bound themselves
to the criteria of soundness in narrating hadith, such as
Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Hibban, Ibn Khuzayma, and al-Hakim in their
well-known books.

18Such as Malik, Ahmad, and the rest of
the authors of the Six Books and others, i.e. those who did not
strictly bind themselves to to the criteria of soundness in
narrating hadith.

19al-Imam al-hafiz Abu al-hasan `Ali
ibn `Abd Allah al-Madini (pr. ma-dEE-ni). He narrated
hadith from his father and from Hammad ibn Zayd and a large
number of hadith masters. From him narrated Bukhari, Abu Dawud,
al-Baghawi, Abu Ya`la. His shaykh `Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi said:
"`Ali ibn al-Madini is the most knowledgeable of all human
beings in the hadith of Allah's Messenger, especially concerning
what Ibn `Uyayna narrates. Do you blame me for loving `Ali ibn
al-Madini too much? By Allah, I learn more from him than he does
from me." Yahya al-Qattan (al-Madini's shaykh and that of
Ahmad ibn Hanbal) said the same about him. Bukhari said: "I
did not think little of myself except in front of `Ali (ibn
al-Madini)." al-Nasa'i said: "It is as if Allah created
him only for this science (hadith)." He died in Samarra. The
name of Madini is related to the city of the Prophet. This was
said by Ibn al-Athir. As for al-Jawhari, he said that the latter
would be "Madani" (pr. ma-da-nEE) and that
"Madini" was related to the city built by the caliph
al-Mansur.

23I.e. exaggeration in shaving the
head. This was one of the marks of the Wahhabis as pointed out by
al-`Alawi al-Haddad and others. It is known that Ibn `Abidin
called the Wahhabis Kharijis in his Hashiyat al-durr
al-mukhtar. It is also said that tahliq here means:
sitting in circles.

24From Asma' Bint Yazid: Abu Dharr
(al-Ghifari) used to serve the Prophet and when he finished he
would go to the masjid and sleep, and the masjid was his house.
One time the Prophet came in and found Abu Dharr lying on the
ground. He nudged him with his foot and Abu Dharr sat up. The
Prophet said: "Sleeping?" He replied: "O Messenger
of Allah, where else can I sleep? I have no house other than
this." The Prophet said: "What will you do if they
expel you from it?" He said: "I will repair to Syria,
for verily Syria is the land of migration, the land of the
Gathering (on the Day of Judgment), and the land of Prophets. I
shall be one of its dwellers." The Prophet said: "What
will you do if they expel you from Syria?" He said: "I
will come back here and make it my house and my dwelling."
The Prophet said: "What if they expel you from it a second
time?" He replied: "Then I will take up my sword and
fight them off until I die." The Prophet looked displeased
and he held him firmly and said: "Shall I tell you of a
better way?" He said: "Yes, may my father and mother be
ransomed for you, O Messenger of Allah!" The Prophet said:
"Let them lead you whither they lead you, and let yourself
be taken whither they take you, until you meet me again in that
very state." Ahmad narrated it with one weak sub-narrator
(Shahr ibn Hawshab), however, some have declared him reliable,
e.g. Ibn Hajar in "Fath al-Bari" 3:65 and al-Hafiz
al-Dhahabi. The hadiths of Abu Dharr's death and the prediction
of its circumstances are narrated by Ibn Rahawyh, Ibn Abi Usama,
and al-Bayhaqi: Umm Dharr (his wife) wept as he lay on his
deathbed and upon his questioning she replied: "Why should I
not weep seeing you die in a desert land and I have not even
enough in my possession for my own shroud, nor yours?" He
said: "Good tidings to you, and don't weep! for I heard the
Prophet say to a large group as I was among them: One of you will
die in a deserted land, with a handful of Muslims for witnesses.
None of that large group remains and all of them died in a town
surrounded by many. Therefore I am that one..." From Ibn
Mas`ud: When the Prophet went out on the campaign of Tabuk Abu
Dharr lagged behind due to his old camel. They complained of it
to the Prophet who said: "Leave him be, for perhaps there is
good in it, and Allah will make him catch up with you." When
Abu Dharr saw that his camel was too slow, he carried his own
gear and continued on foot, following the traces of Allah's
Messenger alone in the heat. When the Prophet saw him his eyes
filled with tears and he said: "May Allah have mercy on Abu
Dharr! He walks alone, and he shall die alone, and he shall be
resurrected alone. Ibn Hajar mentions in al-Isaba that Ibn Ishaq
narrated it with a weak chain.

It was so when he died in al-Rabdha, for there
was no one with him except his wife and his young boy. After they
washed him and shrouded him they waited by the side of the road
for someone to help bury him. `Abd Allah ibn Mas`ud came with a
following of the people of Iraq. When the boy saw them he jumped
up to them and said: "This is Abu Dharr, the Companion of
Allah's Messenger! Therefore, help us to bury him." Ibn
Mas`ud came down and wept saying: "Allah's Messenger told
the truth."

Abu Dharr had heard from the Prophet that one
must not hoard up provision for more than a certain time. During
the caliphate of

Sayiddina `Uthman, people became quite
well-off. Abu Dharr used to come out and preach against this and
say they were wrong to store up and save. The people complained
to Sayyidina `Uthman. Whenever Abu Dharr met sayyidina `Uthman,
may Allah be well pleased with both of them, Abu Dharr would
recite to him the verse:

9:35 On the day when it will
(all) be heated in the Fire,and their
foreheads and their flanks and their backs will be branded
therewith (and it will be said untothem):
Here is that which ye hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what
ye used to hoard.Finally he called Abu
Dharr and told him to stop. When Abu Dharr refused, saying he
must convey what was told to him, `Uthman exiled him from Madina.
al-Qari says: `Uthman exiled him to Syria, then he brought him
back to Madina, then exiled him again to al-Rabdha, a village in
ruins, where he stayed until his death.

Abu Dharr was evidently the strictest and most
austere of the Companions in light of the ahadith related from
and about him. He was a Sufi-like Companion and is known as
"al-zahid" or the ascetic in the biographical
dictionaries. He was extremely scrupulous and direct. The author
of Hayat al-Sahaba mentions Sufyan al-Thawri's relation
that Abu Dharr used to stand by the Ka`ba and shout at the
people: "Greed has killed you! You can never fulfill your
greed!"

The following is illustrative of Abu Dharr's
manner:

Ahmad (1:63) relates on the authority of Abu
Dharr that the latter came to ask something from `Uthman ibn
`Affan and he had his staff in his hand. `Uthman then asked,
"O Ka`b, `Abd al-Rahman [ibn `Awf] has died and has left
money behind. What is your opinion on it?" He replied,
"If he paid Allah's dues with his money [i.e. his debts],
then we may use it." Abu Dharr raised his staff and hit Ka`b
with it. Then he said: "I heard the Prophet say: If this
entire mountain of gold were mine to spend and it were accepted,
I would not like to leave behind even six ounces of it." I
adjure you by Allah, `Uthman, did you hear it? Did you hear it?
Did you hear it?" `Uthman said: na`am (Yes)!

This is the account of Abu Dharr's conversion
in Sahih Bukhari:

[English by Khan with slight modifications.
Volume 5, Book 58, Number 201:]

Narrated Ibn `Abbas:

When Abu Dharr received the news of the Advent
of the Prophet he said to his brother, "Ride to this valley
(of Mecca) and try to find out the truth of the person who claims
to be a prophet who is informed of the news of Heaven. Listen to
what he says and come back to me." So his brother set out
and came to the Prophet and listened to some of his talks, and
returned to Abu Dharr and said to him. "I have seen him
enjoining virtuous behavior and saying something that is not
poetry." Abu Dharr said, "You have not satisfied me as
to what I wanted." He then took his journey-food and carried
a water-skin of his, containing some water till be reached Mecca.
He went to the Mosque and searched for the Prophet and though he
did not know him, he hated to ask anybody about him. When a part
of the night had passed away, `Ali saw him and knew that he was a
stranger. So when Abu Dharr saw `Ali, he followed him, and none
of them asked his companion about anything, and when it was dawn,
Abu Dharr took his journey food and his water-skin to the Mosque
and stayed there all the day long without being perceived by the
Prophet, and when it was evening, he came back to his retiring
place. `Ali passed by him and said, "Has the man not known
his dwelling place yet?" So `Ali awakened him and took him
with him and none of them spoke to the other about anything. When
it was the third day. `Ali did the same and Abu Dharr stayed with
him. Then `Ali said "Will you tell me what has brought you
here?" Abu Dharr said, "If you give me a firm promise
that you will guide me, then I will tell you." `Ali promised
him, and he informed `Ali about the matter. `Ali said, "It
is true, and he is the Apostle of Allah. Next morning when you
get up, accompany me, and if I see any danger for you, I will
stop as if to pass water, but if I go on, follow me and enter the
place which I will enter." Abu Dharr did so, and followed
`Ali till he entered the place of the Prophet, and Abu Dharr went
in with him, Abu Dharr listened to some of the Prophet's talks
and embraced Islam on the spot. The Prophet said to him, "Go
back to your people and inform them (about it) till you receive
my order." Abu Dharr said, "By Him in Whose Hand my
life is, I will proclaim my conversion loudly amongst them (i.e.
the pagans)." So he went out, and when he reached the
Mosque, he said as loudly as possible, "I bear witness that
there is no god except Allah, and Muhammad is the Apostle of
Allah." The People got up and beat him painfully. Then
al-`Abbas came and knelt over him (to protect him) and said (to
the people), "Woe to you! Don't you know that this man
belongs to the tribe of Ghifar and your trade to Sha'm is through
their way?" So he rescued him from them. Abu Dharr again did
the same the next day. They beat him and took vengeance on him
and again al-`Abbas knelt over him.

Ibn Hajar says about him in al-Isaba fi tamyiz
al-sahaba:

"The famous ascetic who spoke frankly...
His full name was Jundub ibn Janada ibn Sakan; it was also said
he was called Ibn `Abd Allah, or Barir, or Burayr, or al-Sakan
ibn Janada... He was tall, of dark complexion, and thin...
al-Tabarani cited the hadith from Abu al-Darda' whereby the
Prophet always looked for Abu Dharr when he was present, and
missed him when he was absent. Ahmad mentioned the hadith whereby
the Prophet said: "The one of you sitting closest to
me on theDay of rising is he who
leaves this world in the same condition as on the day I left
him;" Abu Dharr added: and, by Allah there is none among you
except he has lusted for something in the world except I."
Its sub-narrators are trustworthy except that the link [of the
Tabi`i] is missing, as I don't think `Arrak ibn Malik narrated
from Abu al-Darda'...

Abu Dawud cited with a good chain `Ali's
saying: "Abu Dharr is a large vessel full of knowledge, and
he became helpless about it." Abu Dawud and Ahmad narrated
from `Abd Allah ibn `Umar that the Prophet said: "Neither
dust has carried nor green has shaded one more frank of speech
than Abu Dharr."... After he met the Prophet, Abu Dharr went
to the Ka`ba and began shouting at the top of his lungs: I bear
witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His
servant and Messenger! whereupon the people pounced on him and
beat him until he could not get up. al-`Abbas rescued him and
said to the people: Woe to you! He is from Ghifar, on the trade
route to Damascus. Then Abu Dharr came back the next day and did
the same, whereupon they beat him again and al-`Abbas rescued him
again...

He died in al-Rabdha in the year 31 or 32. The
majority think the latter. It is said in a story related with a
passable chain that Ibn Mas`ud led the funeral prayer over him.
al-Mada'ini (i.e. al-hafiz `Ali al-Madini) says the same and adds
that Ibn Mas`ud then returned to Madina and died shortly
afterwards." End of Ibn hajar's words in al-Isaba.

25al-Bayhaqi narrates it. `Ali al-Qari
in his commentary on Qadi `Iyad said: al-Khatib said: He became
Muslim. Others said: He died as a Christian. The contradiction is
resolved by the fact that he became Muslim and then apostatized.
Ibn Mindah and Abu Nu`aym in their books entitled "Ma`rifat
al-sahaba" (Knowledge of who the Companions were) said He
became Muslim and gifted the Prophet a mantle of brocade
[hillatun siyara' -- note that the latter adjective also denotes,
as a noun, the veil over the heart] which the Prophet gave to
`Umar. Ibn al-Athir said [in his own dictionary of the Companions
entitled Usd al-ghaba]: Concerning the approach and the gift they
are right, but concerning his Islam they were mistaken, for there
is no disagreement among the authors of biographies that he was
not a Muslim [i.e. when he died]. He was a Christian when the
Prophet approached him, then he went back to his stronghold and
remained there until Khalid surrounded him in the time of Abu
Bakr, and killed him as a Christian idolater for breaching his
trust. Ibn al-Athir continues: al-Baladuri mentioned that Ukaydar
came to the Prophet and then went back to Duma, also called Duma
al-Jundul, a place between Hijaz and Syria, then, when the
Prophet died, he apostatized. When Khalid marched from Iraq to
Syria he killed him.

37Narrated by Tabarani in his Mu`jam
al-Kabir, al-Bazzar, Suyuti in his Jami` al-saghir,
al-Haythami in Majma` al-zawa'id in the "Chapter on
the Reality of Belief and its Perfection" (bab haqiqat
al-iman wa kamalih), al-`Askari, Ibn al-Mubarak in Kitab
al-zuhd, `Abd al-Razzaq through two chains, Ibn Mindah,
Bayhaqi in Shu`ab al-iman, Ibn Asram in Kitab
al-istiqama, Ibn Sa`id, and Ibn Abi Shayba in his Musannaf.
Abu Hanifa mentions it in his al-Fiqh al-akbar. Ibn Hajar
in his Isaba lists its many chains and says that this is a
hadith mu`dal (i.e. its chain is missing two or more
sub-narrators) and mawsul (or: muttasil; i.e. it is
linked back to a Companion through the authority of a Tabi`i.

40Narrated from Anas by Abu Nu`aym, Hilyat
al-awliya' 10:15. Cited in the Commentaries of Suyuti, al-Durr
al-manthur (1:372) and Qurtubi (13:364), also by al-Hafiz
al-Zabidi in his Ithaf al-sada al-muttaqin 1:403. Shawkani
included it in his collection of inauthentic hadiths (al-Fawa'id
p. 289), however, al-Qari considers it authentic in his similar
collection al-Asrar al-marfu`a p. 325.

46Tirmidhi (gharib) from Abu Sa`id al-Khudri,
and Tabarani from Abu Imama with a fair (hasan) chain according
to al-Haythami in the chapter on firasa of Majma`
al-zawa'id.

47Related from Anas with a fair chain by
al-Bazzar, Tabarani, Abu Nu`aym in al-Tibb al-nabawi, and
from Ibn Sa`id by Bukhari in his Tarikh, al-`Askari in al-Amthal,
Ibn Jarir al-Tabari in his Tafsir for 15:75, Ibn Abi
Hatim, and Ibn Mardawayh.